Incredible coils in art.

The eighth graders recently finished beautiful coil pots in which they incorporated new techniques for creating interesting patterns using the traditional coil method. They painted them yesterday and I think they look great.

Finishing linear equations unit

This week in 8th grade we are finishing our third unit on linear equations.  So far this week, we took a quiz and reviewed how to draw and write an equation for a trend line/line of best fit, and had a review day.  The unit three test is tomorrow.

I hope that everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable two week break and safe travels to those going out of town.

Upcoming assignments:

Unit 3 test on Wednesday Dec. 16
Alternative Assessment due Wednesday Dec. 16.

Week 16: 8th Grade Science

Week: 16

When we return we will finish our unit on Newton’s Three Laws and begin our chemistry unit.  Hope your holidays are happy and safe.

Topic: Chemical Interactions:  The Atom and its History

Students will be able to: 

Explain why the atom is the building block of matter or maybe life.

Describe how atomic theory developed and changed.

Essential Question:

How did they find the atom?

This week the 8th graders had a short review on the structure of the atom and then went back in time to discover the atom.  A small object (the atom) was placed in a small cereal box. They first had to locate the atom and then drop marbles into the box to determine the size, shape, movement, make-up, and any other discovery they made about the atom.   Ask them about this fun little experiment.  

Key Terms:

parts of the atom

electron cloud

Differentiated Instruction:

predicting

observing

measuring

making models

concluding

Upcoming:

More about atoms, bonding, and the Periodic Table

Week 15: 8th Grade Science

Week: 15

Topic: Newton’s Laws of Motion

Students will be able to: 

Design and build a crate to capture an egg without breaking or a hot air balloon.

Essential Question:

How does mass work once it is put into motion?

This week the kids discover how to counter the reaction force of a falling egg or defy gravity.

Key Terms:

Inertia

momentum

Differentiated Instruction:

predicting

observing

math integration

measuring

designing

building

Upcoming:

Chemistry of Food

Hour of Code

The middle school students participated in Hour of Code today using TinkerBox HD a physics-based building environment. What does that mean? It means it is a virtual environment with objects that operate and interact as they do in the real world, with gravity, simple machines, and based on scientific concepts. Students built upon their experiences with code from Hour of Code in previous years and moved into a visual learning environment. They had the opportunity to practice with puzzles and create their own Rube Goldberg machines.
Throughout the experience today, students were asked to problem solve, think through situations sequentially, and examine cause and effect behaviors. They interacted with one another offering support and creative solutions. The TinkerBox HD app is on your child's iPad. Ask them to show you how it works.
For further information and coding opportunities, the code.org site is a wonderful free resource with coding and app creation opportunities for children. I would also encourage you to check out Scratch Jr. (works well as an iPad app) and Scratch for more advanced coding experiences. Scratch offers a platform for students to write code and create a game that can be shared with others in a safe online setting. Your child might also be interested in experimenting with a Makey Makey (If I explain it, I won't do it justice). Take a look at this wonderful device that makes it possible to turn bananas into a keyboard. You might also look into the Tynker app. This app provides coding and problem solving challenges for all ages and levels. Coding is the perfect opportunity for kids to utilize their problem solving and spatial reasoning skills over the winter break.
A special thank you to Ted Grunebaum, Heidi McDermott, Margaret Steele, Vince Menees, Julie DePrey, David Tipton (dad to William in kindergarten), and Mike Check (dad to Josie in 1st and Braeden in 3rd). They each enjoyed facilitating the experience for the kids.

Pickleball Tournament

Congratulations to Team Powerhouse (Sander and Ella) for defeating the Marshmallow Dragons (Lauren and Sean) in the Championship round of our 8th grade Pickleball tournament! Powerhouse will now get the chance to win a free Slim's lunch if they can beat Mr. Hotaling and Mr. Hirsch!

Slope Intercept form/Standard Form/Point-Slope-Form

This week in 8th grade we are continuing to work on linear equations.  We have spent a great deal of time reviewing slope and slope intercept form and seeing how they can be used in everyday life.  For the rest of the week we learn about two other ways to graph linear equations using standard form and point-slope-form.

Upcoming Assignments:

POW Laser Tag due on Monday Dec. 14
Quiz on Monday Dec. 14 on sections 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5
POW Pizza Puzzle due Tuesday Dec. 15
Test and alternative assessment on Wednesday Dec. 16 or possibly 14

I realize that many students have the selective enrollment test this coming weekend, but all of these assignments have been given to the class already and I encouraged them all to start working on them now to lighten their loads.

8th Grade Language Arts: Project Fair

8th Grade students enjoyed sharing their graphic novels during Project Fair.

1920s Menu

This week, the 8th graders are working independently on several different projects.  They are working on 1920s menu items and researching a influential figure from the era.  They will prepare a speech about their person for our Prohibition Party, which has been rescheduled for Thursday, December 17.

Upcoming Dates:

• 1920s Menu due     Mon. 10/14
• 1920s Test               Wed. 10/16
• Prohibition Party   Thurs. 10/17

Question for your 8th grader:

• Which 1920s character are you researching for the Prohibition Party?

Proportions/Linear Equations

This week in 8th grade math we are continuing to work on our unit on linear equations.  We started the week reviewing proportions and similar figures so that when we continue to review slope we can make the connection between similar triangles and slope.  Today most of the class had to go to the art room to finish their Calder Mobile's so that they would be ready for Project Fair on Thursday.  For the rest of the week we will be continuing to work on slope and slope intercept form.

Upcoming assignments:
Quiz on Friday Dec. 4th
POW Slippery Slope due Monday Dec. 7

1920s Socratic Seminar

Over the past several weeks, the 8th graders have been teaching each other about different events that took place in America during the 1920s.  Students did research, asked each other questions, and created projects that taught the information to their classmates.  They are also creating menu projects about the era. Today and tomorrow, students are participating in a Socratic Seminar.  Each student will ask a thought provoking question about their topic for the group to discuss.  Students in the inner circle discuss verbally, while students in the outer circle discuss using a Schoology discussion.  The students make amazing connections to past and current events and really think critically about these topics when they discuss them together.  Check out some of the discussions below.  Next week, the 8th graders will have their Prohibition Party, where we turn the classroom into a speak easy and the kids listen to jazz music and take on the persona of a famous person from the era.  They will give biographical speeches about their influential figure.

Upcoming Dates:

• Prohibition Party Thursday, December 10
• 1920s Menu due  Monday, December 14
• 1920s Test            Wednesday, December 16

Questions for your 8th Grader:

• What menu items are you working on?
• What is your 1920s topic?  Do you think this topic shows innovation or conservatism?

Week 14: 8th Grade Science

Week 14

Topic: Friction and Gravity.

Students will be able to: 

Describe the friction, and identify factors that determine the friction force between two objects.

Identify the factors that affect the gravitational force between two objects.

Explain why objects accelerate during free fall.

Essential Question:

How does distance affect gravity?  How did Newton do it?

This week the kids discover how mass, distance, weight, acceleration, speed, and gravity are all related.

Key Terms:

friction

weight

gravity

free fall

air resistance

terminal velocity

projectile

Differentiated Instruction:

predicting

observing

math integration

measuring

data analysis

concluding

creating labs

compare and contrast

Upcoming:

The Laws of Newton, momentum, and Conservation of Momentum.

8th Grade Language Arts: December Projects

Eighth graders started writing book reviews this week.  During the review writing process, our focus will be on crafting attention grabbing introductions, providing an interesting portrait of the novel’s story, developing opinions, and giving explanations that show strong analysis and conclusions.  Additionally, students will do research about the author or other interesting details to provide insight beyond the story.  Lastly, students will include their own recommendation for the novel.  

Students will draft their writing during class time this week and submit their first draft for teacher feedback through Schoology next week.  A plan for improvement for the final draft stage will be discussed during workshop conferencing.  Students will have opportunities during class to share their reviews with classmates inside and outside their book club groups.

They will also begin working on their group project this week.  The Soundtrack Project requires each group to choose at least ten songs that represent events from their book club novel.  They will prepare one complete paragraph for each song explaining how the song relates to an event in the novel.  Students will cite and explain the song lyrics and use textual evidence that they find most profound.  They will submit their song list and explanations prior to the presentation.  Soundtracks will be previewed and explained during the group presentation on December 16th.  

The goal of this project is to see if students can apply the plot, themes, and symbols of their book club book to another text—music.  Additionally, I am hoping that they can see the connections between the novel and real life.  There is a direct relationship between the themes and attitudes of music and the society for which the music is performed.  Students will make comparisons and connections between our music, our society, and themes present in their dystopian books.

Upcoming Due Dates:

Book Review First Draft Due: Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Book Review Final Draft Due: Monday, December 14, 2015

Book Club Soundtrack Project and Presentation: Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Starting unit 3 on graphing

This week in 8th grade we finished up our project fair project work and started our next unit on graphing linear equations.  We reviewed the distributive property and properties of numbers.  When we return from Thanksgiving Break we will be reviewing proportions and similar figures to help prepare for linear equations.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your time off.

Week 13: 8th Grade Science

8th Grade Families,

Have a safe and Thankful holiday.

Sincerely,
Mr. T

8th Grade Language Arts: Dystopian Book Clubs

Students will have their final book club meeting on Tuesday.  The concluding assessment projects for the Dystopian Book Club Unit will be completed in December.  Students will create a book review individually and work as a group to develop a soundtrack to connect to the events and characters in their book.  Check back to see how these projects are developing!

Upcoming Due Dates:

Book Review First Draft Due: Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Book Review Final Draft Due: Monday, December 14, 2015

Book Club Soundtrack Project and Presentation: Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Technology in Your Daily Lives

Do you use technology in a creative way on a daily basis? Is there a robot that builds things in your industry? Are you able to provide better care to your patients because of technology? We want to hear from you!
We would like to connect the NPES theme of Humans of Chicago and our Hour of Code experience by bringing in guest speakers that use technology in a creative way. NPES hopes to inspire our students to change the world. From Anthony Atala who is exploring 3D printing as an alternative to organ procurement programs to Brittany Wenger who at the age of 17 turned her love of asking questions in to an award winning cloud based artificial intelligence program for diagnosing breast cancer, technology is changing the way we live our lives and experience health and happiness.
NPES students are our future. Exposing them to humans of Chicago who utilize technology everyday, gives our students the opportunity to look towards that future. Please contact Kim Smith or Brad Riggs if you would like to share your story.

Hour of Code is Coming

The Hour of Code experience at North Park needs you! The entire middle school will participate at the same time the morning of December 11, 2015. Beyond the desire to create and explore with some really great kids,  there are no specific skills required of volunteers. Everything we will do with the kids is something that you can do too. Please sign up for a time that works with your schedule. We would love to have you with your own child's class or with another class. 

Week 12

Topic: May the Force be with you.

Students will be able to: 

Describe what a force is.

Explain how a balanced and unbalanced forces are related to an object’s motion.

Describe friction, and identify factors that determine the friction force between two objects.

Essential Question:

What happens when forces are combined?

This week the kids will apply their understanding of motion and explore what happens when they accelerate a mass.

Key Terms:

force 

newton

net force

balance and unbalanced forces

friction

Differentiated Instruction:

observing

math integration

measuring

data analysis

creating labs

Upcoming:

Gravity and the The Laws of Newton.

1920s Projects

This week, the 8th graders began their unit about the 1920s.  Students were each given a topic or event from the era and did some preliminary research.  Then, they divided into groups based on the themes that linked their topics together.  Now, each group is creating a project that teaches their information to the class.  The topics are politics, economy, culture, and diversity.  Today, students began brainstorming how they could share their knowledge with their classmates.  They will spend the rest of the week creating projects and teaching them to the class.

Questions for your 8th grader:

• What topic and theme are you researching for your 1920s project?
• Based on your topic, do you think the 1920s were a time of innovation or conservatism?

Project Fair

This week the 8th graders are continuing to work on the project fair project.  They are working on their Calder Mobile's in art and fractals in math.  We have created dragon fractals, Koch's Snowflakes, Sierpinski's Triangles, and we are in the process of creating a 3D Koch's Sierpinski's Triangle Snowflake.  I gave the class all the created triangles from years passed and told them to create any fractal design they wanted, as long as it displayed self similarity, and they came up with a great idea.  I can't wait for you all to see it at project fair.  It really highlights what a fractal is and shows how it is between a 2d and a 3d figure.  Really cool stuff.  After we finish creating the 3d fractal, we are going to create some questions that go along with the presentation for people not in class to try and answer.

Upcoming assignment:
Quiz on the streets and numbers of the North Side of Chicago

                         
                                                                 Lots of Triangles

8th Grade Language Arts: Dystopian Book Clubs

Unwind

“Unwind is a dystopian novel set in America in the future. Three teens; Lev, Risa, and Connor are unwinds.  Meaning they will be killed for their organs to be transferred.  The three kids found out that they would be unwound before their parents told them, so the three decided to run away.  They go through a long and hard journey to try to escape their fate in the book Unwind. We all like the book because of the contrast between characters and how the chapters switch points of view.”

-Stone, Luke, Max C., & Heath

Fahrenheit 451

“We’re reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The story is about a fireman – one who destroys books by starting fires, rather than putting fires out. As the story progresses, the main character, Guy Montag, realizes he might not be doing the right thing. Told in three riveting and inspiring parts, Fahrenheit 451 is a book we all have been thoroughly enjoying. Ray Bradbury does a great job in this story, perfectly illustrating the scene with excellent metaphors, similes, and analogies. He goes into detail at important parts, and leaves great cliffhangers and creates well-written suspense and tension.” 

-Sean, Ava, Max W., Audrey, & Sander 

Pascal's Triangle/Fractals and slope

This week in 8th grade math we are starting our new unit on linear equations.  We started the unit by reviewing slope concepts and rise over run.  We will continue to make the connection between slope and the use of proportions and similar figures.  We will also be spending more time working on the Pascal's Triangle/Fractal Project Fair.  Every student created a Pascal's Triangle and we are going to start to put them together to make a large version.

Ask your child how their Calder Mobile's are going.

World War I Menu Projects

Today, the 8th graders are finishing their World War I unit and taking their test.  Yesterday, they presented their creations from their menu projects.  We saw a variety of different projects about World War I and it was a good review for the test.  Students performed interviews with characters from the unit, showed wartime propaganda that they created, and even rapped about the causes of World War I.  Later in the week, we will begin our unit about the 1920s.

Questions for your 8th grader:

• Was the Treaty of Versailles a fair and effective settlement for lasting world peace?
• Show me the menu item that you are most proud of.

8th Grade Language Arts: Dystopian Book Clubs

The Maze Runner

“The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas who is put in a box and is sent up to the Glade. He doesn’t remember anything except his first name. Since he got there, everything has started to change, a day after he arrives a girl comes to the Glade and she’s the first girl to ever come into the Glade. 

The Glade is the center of the Maze, the only way to get out. There are Runners to scope out the Maze, but it’s very difficult because the Maze changes every night. It may sound like you can stay in the Maze overnight, but that would be a death wish. The Grievers are the death wish. Big matronic bugs that can sting you. Get stung and make it back in time to the Glade, you go through the Changing. 

Everything’s been changing since Thomas arrived, will he be the one to get everyone out?

Some things that we’re finding interesting include how Thomas has been changing. He seems to be getting more confident throughout the story. Also, why is everyone here? What’s the reasoning behind sending someone to the Glade when it really doesn’t have that big of an effect? What kind of things qualify you to get sent into the Maze? Everyone is a teenager, they’re smart, and at least kind of athletic. The Glade sounds like a nice place, however it seems kind of artificial. If you’re trapping someone there, why would you make it so nice?”

-Lauren, Gwyneth, Emma, & Thora

Uglies

“Uglies is a dystopian novel about a society where until the age of sixteen, everyone is called an “ugly.”  Then at sixteen, all Uglies undergo an operation that makes them “Pretty.”  Tally Youngblood can't wait for her operation, till her friend Shay runs away and she questions everything she thought she knew.  We think this book takes issues from our society and dramatizes them.  This book is a very interesting, new idea.  Are looks that important to our society?  The author poses an interesting point of view and we look forward to finishing this book and possible the series.”

-Asha, Viv, Ella, Sophie, & Abby

Week 11: 8th Grade Science

Week 11

Topic: “The Tortoise and the Hare”

Students will be able to: 

Determine when an object is in motion.

Calculate an objects speed and velocity.

Demonstrate how to graph motion.

Essential Question:

Why did the tortoise win the race?

This week the kids will graph and rewrite the fable of “The Tortoise and Hare” as if a physicist had written it. 

Key Terms:

motion

reference point

speed/velocity

instantaneous and average speed

slope

Differentiated Instruction:

inferring 

math integration/graphing

kinesthetic

measuring

Upcoming:

How do forces work? and the The Laws of Newton.

Lacrosse in PE

"I think that Lacrosse was really fun. I learned how to properly hold a stick, cradle the ball, and aim my passing and shooting so that it would go to my teammate's stick or into the goal. Lacrosse was probably my favorite unit this year because we had never done it before and it was really fun. If I went to this school again next year I would hope we would play it again."

-Max W

The Treaty of Versailles

Last week, the 8th graders talked about the end of World War I.  On Friday, they participated in a simulation of the Treaty of Versailles.  Each group represented a different country from the Allies (The United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy) and argued about how the treaty should deal with Germany.  They answered questions like should Germany have to pay for the war, should they take full blame for the war, and what should be done with its overseas territories.  Then, during the next lesson, the students compared the treaty that they made with the actual Treaty of Versailles.

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, November 9  World War I Menu due
• Tuesday, November 10 World War I test

Questions for your 8th grader:

• Who did you represent during the Treaty of Versailles simulation and how did they believe Germany should be treated?
• Was the Treaty of Versailles a good treaty?

Environmental art at the nature center.

With the monster project finished (look for work to be hung up in the hall next week) the 8th grade moved on to our annual nature installation project at the North Park Village Nature Center. We look at the work of the artist Andy Goldsworthy and then we go out in the field to create and photograph temporary installations using only what we find in nature.  The only tools allowed are scissors, trowels and water and once complete these designs will dissipate back to nature.  Here are a few images of them working and a few of the completed pieces. These works will be made into a set of greeting cards that will be available for purchase at the auction.

Here are some of the beautiful finished pieces.